Technology is forcing businesses to rethink their business models in order to survive in today's fast-paced efficient business environment. Similarly, technologically based, personnel-lean companies are forcing large companies to compete in terms of dollars saved rather than in terms of dollars earned. Therefore, in order to compete on level ground, large businesses are re-engineering business processes to accommodate the demand for a low maintenance, low overhead business model. One example of this is creating incentives for customers in the banking, financial and insurance industries to use low overhead cost automatic teller machines (ATMs) and the Internet for transactions, rather than high overhead cost face-to-face transactions. What makes the task arduous for the provider is balancing the shortcomings of the technology based, personnel-lean model with the cost, service and efficiency demands of the 21st century customer.
Banking, financial, and insurance institutions are exploiting recent advances in telecommunications, as well as data-storage and retrieval, to increase their customer base by offering customers the convenience of banking, purchasing financial investments, or obtaining insurance anywhere via an ATM or the Internet. Thus, advances in technology, information storage and retrieval, and communications have created a dichotomy in the banking, financial and insurance industry between service, such as face-to-face banking, and solvency, such as ATM/computer/Internet banking. Additionally, ATMs, Internet banking, and other on-line financial and insurance transactions only offer a small portion of services offered by face-to-face transactions at traditional “brick and mortar” institutions.
In light of the foregoing, systems and methods are needed that work cohesively to provide convenience and service to banking, financial and insurance customers, while reducing overhead costs for providers are needed. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved system and method for providing a financial transaction.